BLM reviews Lake vendor contract
Up to 2 vendors may be allowed at Rotary Park

Up to two vendors may be allowed back to Rotary Beach next summer, but it may be awhile before the city knows for sure.

The Bureau of Land Management state office is currently reviewing a possible agreement with the city to once again allow shoreline vendors at Rotary Beach. City staff made recommendations in October based on City Council thoughts and is currently awaiting word from the state. Shoreline vending opportunities will look severely different next year, with only the possibility of two personal watercraft vendors allowed to return.

BLM Lake Havasu City Assistant Field Manager Mike Henderson believes the agreement is close to completion.

“I want that agreement signed prior to the next boating season, and hopefully we can get it out prior to March,” he said. “Right now, it is at our state office in Phoenix, and our Recreation Program Lead is reviewing the agreement.”

Henderson said he also expects to get an answer about the potential vendor selection process for the two locations.

“If we get a lot of inquiries for the limited number of permits then there will either be a lottery or it will go out for bid,” Henderson said. “Right now, that has not been decided yet and we have six inquiries. We will know more once an agreement is put in place and we see the applications we get.”

Henderson said the BLM office would also look into the possible unfair market competition created with two vendors on the beach and the rest within the city.

“That is going to depend on several things but right now, we don’t have anything established,” he said. “Once we start getting proposals, part of our process will include doing market comparisons to make sure there isn’t that unfair advantage.”

City Senior Planner Stuart Schmeling said the agreement is no longer a negotiation, but that the BLM would outline parameters for the city to follow. The city will also have no more say as to how many vendors are allowed on the beach and the process behind it, Schmeling said.

“The BLM takes the applications and runs them through the National Environmental Protection Agency process and based on set criteria, determine what vendors will receive the annual permits,” he said. “From what I understand, the BLM has the authority to grant multiple years in their contracts but all of the contract negotiations are up to them, and the city has nothing to do with that.”

Schmeling said the council agreed to no more than two vendors allowed at Rotary Park Beach, and the city’s recommendations were based on area and proximity to other locations.

“Once we as staff started looking at the entire length of the beaches at Rotary (Park) and London Bridge, we saw two was really all we could accommodate safely,” he said. “After we took the swim areas where we thought they would be appropriate, it became apparent that any more vendors would be coming too close to the Channel or be sitting in shallow water.”

Mayor Mark Nexsen said two or three vendors would be appropriate and that the City Council would again look at the possibility of food vendors on the beaches but would no longer consider shoreline food vendors.

“We all agreed it needed to be limited, and we felt two or three was best but it’s about what we can accommodate,” he said. “More land might open up at a later date, but that’s all we can do right now.”

Schmeling said the City Council could review potential beach vendors at its regular meeting Nov. 24. He added the city is also still interested in obtaining state land along London Bridge Beach for another possible vendor to be added at a later date.

“We have sent a letter to the state trust that we would be interested in utilizing and doing improvements to that part of the beach,” he said. The state has not reacted to it so far but we are still attempting to secure that land.”

The city could also discuss the possibility of an additional fee structure for the shoreline vendors, Schmeling added, so that fees compare to property taxes and other permits and park fees utilized currently for businesses within the city.

You can contact the reporter at nbruttell@havasunews.com.